ASTR 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Kuiper Belt, Inclined Orbit, Oort Cloud
28 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Nuclear of a comet: source of material for comet"s tail. Comets eject small particles that follow the comet around in its orbit and cause meteor showers when earth crosses the comet"s orbit (they come into earth"s atmosphere at very high speed and vaporize) Comet orbits have random tilts and eccentricities, its a shit show: so does the kuiper belt - comets orbit in the same plane and direction as planets. Kuiper belt comets formed in the belt: at plane aligned with the plane of planetary orbits, orbiting in the same direction as the planets. Pluto will never hit neptune, even though their orbits cross, because of their 3:2 orbital resonance. Neptune orbits three times during the time pluto orbits twice. Pluto has an inclined and very eccentric orbit. Have we ever witnessed a major impact: comets hit jupiter. Did an impact kill the dinosaurs: fossil record shows occasional large dips in the diversity of species: mass extinctions.
